Fulvio Giulio della Corgna (also Della Cornia, Della Corgnia) (19 November 1517 – 2 March 1583) was a Tuscan Catholic bishop and cardinal.
Biography
Fulvio Giulio della Corgna was born in Perugia on 19 November 1517, the son of Francia della Corgna, a Perugian nobleman who bore the title of Duca di Corgna,[1] and Jacopa Ciocchi del Monte. He had a brother Ascanio, who became an important commander of papal armies and Duca della Corgna.[2] His mother was the sister of Pope Julius III and niece of Cardinal Antonio Maria Ciocchi del Monte.[3] The family owned the Marchesato di Castiglione del Lago on Lake Bolsena.[4] Fulvio was a Marchese della Corgna.
He joined the Knights Hospitaller at an early age, taking the religious name "Giulio" in honor of his family's benefactor, Pope Julius II.[3] He entered the court of his uncle, Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, the future Pope Julius III.[3] He was named a Protonotary Apostolic, as well as Archpriest of the Cathedral of S. Lorenzo of Perugia.[5]
On 5 March 1550 he was appointed Bishop of Perugia by his uncle Pope Julius III.[6] He became Papal Legate of Ascolo-Piceno, Reate and Monteleone di Spoleto on 15 December 1550.[7][3] It was Fulvio della Corgna who was responsible for the founding of the seminary in Perugia and for inviting the Jesuits to the city to establish a college, the first Rector of which was Everard de Mercœur (Mercurian).[8]
In 1553, Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Florence, fearing that the fighting in Tuscany might expand into a larger war between the Empire (Charles V) and France (Henri II), which would be severely damaging to his territories, urgently requested the Pope to send negotiators to work out an understanding. Julius sent Cardinal Fulvio della Corgna to Florence and Cardinal Niccolò Caetani de Sermoneta to Siena. When nothing came of their efforts, Pope Julius III himself travelled to Viterbo. On 2 August the French, who had invaded Tuscany under Marshal Blaise de Montluc, were defeated at the Battle of Marciano, and forced to retreat into Siena, where they fomented a coup-d-état in their own interests. But the fact that Vercelli had recently fallen to Marshal de Brissac and the Duke of Savoy had been killed (16 August) gave the French, enjoying one success after another, the courage to decline to settle. The Tuscan War was just beginning.[10] Duke Cosimo of Florence requested that Cardinal della Corgna be named administrator of Spoleto to quell disturbances that had broken out there; on 22 March 1553, therefore, the Cardinal resigned the government of Perugia to become Administrator of Spoleto, on the appointment of Pope Julius III.[3][11] His seat in Perugia was taken by his nephew, Ippolito della Corgna.
Conclave of 1555
He was a participant in both the papal conclave of April 1555 that elected Pope Marcellus II (Marcello Cervini), and the papal conclave of May 1555 that elected Pope Paul IV (Gian Pietro Carafa).[12] Pope Paul IV deprived him of the administration of Spoleto in 1555, in favor of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, one of Carafa's friends, who had administered the diocese of Spoleto under his uncle Paul III in the 1540s.[13] When the pope learned that Cardinal della Corgna had warned his brother Ascanio della Corgna of the pope's orders to arrest him for illicitly entering into communications with Philip II of Spain, the pope had the cardinal arrested on his way to the consistory of 27 July 1556.[3] He was imprisoned in the Castel Sant'Angelo.[3] Following Spanish victories, the pope was forced to moderate his position and ordered the cardinal released and restored to his cardinalate duties, though the cardinal was still fined 60,000 scudi.[3]
Cardinal Fulvio della Corgna died in Rome on 2 March 1583, at the age of 65. He was buried in the Del Monte Chapel in the Church of San Pietro in Montorio.[19]
^T. J. Campbell, The Jesuits, 1534--1921 Volume 1 (New York 1921), p. 132. Thomas M. McCoog, The Mercurian Project (Saint Louis : Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2004), pp. 4-6.
